rant: volume, wattage, and tone

[matt h]

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[Jana]

The amount of watts an amp produces is way down on my list when I am building an amp. Sure, based on experience, I have a pretty good idea what an amp will do before I build it, but I don't make decisions about what I am going to do in an amp just to increase the power. For me, it's all about tone. When I'm done, I measure the amp as a part of testing to see what it puts out. As long as it is within the range that I would expect (meaning the amp is functioning properly), it is what it is.

I am lucky, I guess, in that I haven't been building amps to sell for over 15 years. All the amps I build are for my own enjoyment and occasionally for a friend. As a result, I don't have to deal with a lot of the nonsense that goes on with marketing.

Since this is a rant, I will say that just about anybody can build an amp that is loud--but does it have "tone"?

[xtian]

Power is important where sheer volume is required. A notable example is practicing with my AC/DC tribute, with a heavy hitting drummer. And for many years, while growing up and destroying my hearing, playing in garages. I wish I had my JCM 800 2203 back then!

But in most places I play these days, plus in recording and practicing environments, wattage is nearly irrelevant. Tone is far more important. Low wattage speakers like Celestion's Blue really shine.

It was a fun exercise to build a 15 watt amp with barely sufficient PT and OT, and then play dimed, fearful that it would burn up. It didn't, and it had a very exciting "all out" voice. (However, I took this amp to an outdoor, back yard gig, and it didn't cut it.)

OTOH, I get GREAT bedroom volume sounds with the 100-watt Mitchell I refurbed. Of course its power section is hardly working, but whatever.

[matt h]

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[lord preset]

Perhaps I'm missing something but who are the contemporary amp designers who are not striving for good tone? Who is emphasizing watts per dollar other than perhaps some Guitar Center commodity brands? Not seeing it. The last twenty years has seen a proliferation of small builders catering to specific tonal niches and a major trend towards lower wattage amps. Indeed the design goals of many amp makers aim towards capturing the tone of the big cranked amps of yore in a smaller, lighter, quieter format.

[EtherealWidow]

Most of my stuff is done in the studio and is distorted, so I love single ended amps. Totally inefficient, but I think they give great dirty tones. I know that's not necessarily what you were talking about though.

I love fact that the Trainwreck Express' power amp is designed with a 3dB imbalance.

[matt h]

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[Structo]

It's an odd phenomena of humans.

We always like big numbers.

Horse Power

Torque

Volume!

Most players don't know diddly about electronics other than
what end of the guitar cable to plug in.

But they have been ingrained with the number of Watts and amp is capable of!

It seems that tube amps have always claimed to be louder than SS amps of the same rating.
Well as we know, the volume knob on a tube amp goes to 11!

If I was trying to sell a tube amp I built, I would tell the person, depending on their knowledge, what is the general rule for the type of power tube and how many their are.

For example a few years back I bought a new Carvin Belair.
4x EL84's.
It is sold as a 50w amp.
Probably closer to 40w, but in overdrive it will provide more volume (apparently).

4x 6L6 amps are generally thought of as 100 watts.
Same with the 4x EL34 amps.

2x 6L6, EL34, around 40-50 watts.

2x EL84 around 18 watts.

2x 6V6 can vary but around 14 watts.

Of course it depends on the design of the amp, how it's biased or many other design factors.

[EtherealWidow]

Lord Preset- the great majority of the "chasing good tone!" crowd are simply copying circuits. Voltages, Zpri's, bias points, etc. I've witnessed, proportionately, very little in the way of innovation in circuits, and when I See it, it's generally in the preamp. I mean, look at the lack of proper tweaking of PIs in builds. People are copy/pasting their power amps far and wide. Mostly adopting an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."


Ethereal- that's the sort of thing I was talking about. Also note the non 3.4k/4k Zpri "because, that's why!"

I took inspiration from a "badly-designed" PI for a build that I'm planning. It's a 6g3. Took one of the 82k anode loads and changed it to 100k. Unbalances it nicely. I think it's funny how some guitarists are so serious about spending the extra money to balance the triodes for their PI. HiFi is definitely a different philosophy than guitar amp building. Why would you want to perfectly replicate the sound coming from your pickups? That's horrible.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

I think I've mentioned this on TAG before: When it comes to conservative power ratings, I like to give a nod to Fred Tacone of Divided By 13 Amps. His most conservative rating goes to his model RSA 23. It's rated at 23 Watts from two KT88's. Amp is said to be Class AB1/A, so I'm willing to believe it is a push pull, rather than a SE design. Of course, don't know if the 88's are triode strapped. But all of his guitar amps are conservative. And when you think about it, the difference in SPL between a 25W and a 50W amp is only 3dB. Keep in mind that 1dB is said to be the smallest difference in volume that the human ear can perceive (good mastering engineers notwithstanding). I used to think that you have to squeeze every last watt out of a design. But after looking at the /13 line, and really thinking about the implications of power vs. SPL, i don't worry about it anymore. It seems most tubes, when given a lager than "normal" Zpri, respond in kind with sweeter tone.

[LeeMo]

A personal story. In the early seventies I shared the stage with another guitarist in a rock band. We each played nearly identical black Les Paul Customs from the same year '72. We each used Fender amps, his a silverface Super Reverb and myself a Super Six Reverb. He was a better lead player than I was. Some of this I attribute to his tone. When the tone is sterile it becomes difficult to be inspired and creative. I had the power to overwhelm but in a band setting for the sake of blending it was required that I rein in the beast to his level. He on the other hand had to crank it to be heard, thereby reaching the breakup point and superior tone.
The point being 40 watt 4x10 wins over 100 watt 6x10. I have the tapes from some of our gigs to prove it.


LeeMo

[teemuk]

Not one output power rating fits all. Similarly to a single amp often not being enough to cover all the jobs. Guitars can be played from bedrooms where babies sleep to huge stadiums.

Output power is a mere indicator of headroom. Usually nothing else.

[Ken Moon]

I've seen a lot more 18W and other small amps used by gigging bands recently.

And to me, it looks like it's mostly youngsters with more dollars than sense who buy the 100w amps, then spend all of their time trying to find that sweet spot between "off" and "too loud".

The request I get most often nowadays for custom builds is for a 12-inch speaker combo amp that weighs less less than 35 lbs., but still has built-in reverb and nice full bass, in the 40-50 watt range.

I can often talk them into a 2x6V6 or 4xEL84 design once they hear a good one, but they don't want something like a Princeton or Deluxe. because they're just not full-sounding enough, and often need to be fully cranked to play live with a drummer.

If they're looking for an amp like that to buy, and they can afford it, I've steered a few happy players towards the 4xEl84 Matchless Avalon 30. It fits the bill nicely but still weighs a bit over 40 lbs.

I've experimented with neo speakers and thinner cabs, but the innovation I'd love to see is to get rid of those heavy transformers

As far as tone, most customers can tell you what their favorite amp or group/player is, and then you just have to give them the preamp that gets the tone they're looking for.

I don't think of a power amp as much of a tone shaper, once I've made the decision between fixed bias with NFB and cathode bias with no NFB.

[matt h]

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[ampfab]

Tone is job #1, but great tone is useless if you can't hear yourself over
the rest of the band.
Call me immature, but i like playing loud!